Those of us born before 1950 will remember Tom Hayden as the archetypal 1960s anti-hero, the man who led thousands of disillusioned young adults through the turmoil of sit-in demonstrations, civil rights marches, Vietnam protests and the 1968 Democratic National Convention.In a word, he is remembered as much for his tenacity as for his naive attempts to improve the future by destroying the past and the present. Unhappily, Reunion: A Memoir does nothing to dispel these memories.The story begins with Hayden's description of the 1950s, Eisenhower's halcyon days, and quickly jumps to his ''conversion'' at the University of Michigan.

Florida's attorney general today released a deposition that contradicts a sworn statement by former Gov. Charlie Crist, who said that he did not know that then-Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer would be paid extra to raise funds for the party. That disclosure comes four days before Greer stands trial in Orlando, charged with six crimes: fraud, money laundering and four counts of grand theft. He's accused of funneling $125,000 in state party funds into his personal bank account. During the lunch hour Florida's attorney general's released the deposition of powerful Tallahassee lobbyist Brian Ballard, a confidante of Crist and one of the major fund-raisers in Crist's 2006 campaign for governor.

After reading all the dispatches out of Norman, best I can figure what Barry Switzer was saying on his way out the door was that if Oklahoma is going to have the audacity to start playing by the rules he is outtahere. Somehow, not so surprising. There were, however, two glaring contradictions in all the tearful bulletins. One, if Barry is stepping down totally of his own volition and with no assisting shove from the incoming OU prez, as Switzer insists, then why are his attorneys negotiating a settlement of the remaining terms of his contract?

In the police report, it looked like an open-and-shut case: A Fort Lauderdale police officer responded to a complaint of a man blasting loud music in his back yard, the homeowner refused to turn it off and walked away when the officer tried to arrest him. Winston Dudley was arrested on misdemeanor charges of disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest without violence shortly before 9 p.m. Sept.18, 2010. He was released on bond the next day. But prosecutors refused to file formal criminal charges and Dudley won a $30,000 settlement from the city of Fort Lauderdale after he produced a home security video that contradicted the officer's official report.

Twelve years after he switched parties and was re-elected as a Republican to the House seat he had first won as a Democrat, Phil Gramm last week became the first declared candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. The Texas senator proclaims himself the most committed conservative in the prospective field. But his life is a study in contradictions - most notably, his warnings about the corrupting influence of dependence on government.On NBC-TV's Meet the Press Jan. 29, Gramm said that the problem with America is that ''we have gone too far in creating an entitlement society.

Big-time college athletes are pampered. They're scrutinized unfairly. They pick fights. They're constantly challenged. They coast through school. They're strained mentally and physically.The contradictions represent the vast difference in opinions, in truth and in the life of the college athlete.Daily, we read of their transgressions. Picked up for assault, on drug charges, accused of rape, burglary, a little hell-raising at the local bar on campus. Blown out of proportion? What is proportionate?

`A man of immense contradictions,'' his biographer calls Bob Hope.He played a neurotic coward on film but braved war zones to entertain troops. He amassed enough California property to be a land baron, but his philanthropy is legendary. Born in England, he came to define American humor.The brisk, admiring Bob Hope: The Road to the Top, an AMC documentary tonight at 10, doesn't linger over those contradictions, but they stick with you after the hour-long show ends.They help explain Hope's appeal, his durability and the controversy he generates.

The issue of Democrat Bill Clinton's draft status during the Vietnam War is lingering as press reports focus on contradictions among the presidential nominee's public statements, official records and the recollections of friends and draft officials.Here are some of Clinton's stated positions concerning the controversy, along with the latest information available:- Consistency. Clinton says he has not wavered in his rendition of how he escaped service in the draft: ''I have told the same story all along.

''These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.''Neatly written on a piece of cardboard hanging in the briefing tent, the words of American revolutionary Thomas Paine could hardly be more apt.These are, indeed, trying times for the Florida National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment.The first soldiers to arrive in Miami after Hurricane Andrew forever changed the face of south Dade County, members of the Orlando-based unit are living a life of contradictions in a surreal world unlike anything else anybody has ever seen here.

No water was available and no athletic trainers intervened when Ereck Plancher was showing signs of distress during his final workout, according to depositions by two former UCF football players. Attorneys representing the Plancher family argued during a hearing Friday statements made by Nate Tice and Cody Minnich during the past month corroborate earlier testimony by ex-UCF player Anthony Davis. UCF attorneys contend the allegations are false and contradict sworn testimony from the majority of players present at the workout, UCF coach George O'Leary and certified athletic trainer Robert Jackson.

Sometimes, priests abuse little boys, nutritionists binge and purge, cops break laws, doctors take illegal drugs and yes, army psychiatrists go nuts and shoot soldiers. That doesn't mean we throw out the models, with one exception -- politicians. The old phrase is right: power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. With pols we should expect the worst -- scrutinize while they're in, and then throw the bums out. Peyton Hodges Orlando

WASHINGTON -- A new study points up a political paradox in the long, wrenching debate over revamping the health care system: Some members of Congress whose constituents stand to gain the most are opposing the bill, while others whose constituents probably will pay more for little reward are some of its most ardent supporters. The study by the Urban Institute identified 20 congressional districts where more than 30 percent of the residents have no health care coverage. Eighteen of those districts were located in three states: California, Texas and Florida.

In Monday's letters to the editor, Mason Kelsey writes that those who are against public medical plans use arguments that are filled with contradictions, as in a public plan would be too expensive and at the same time so cheap as to put private insurance companies out of business. This is not a contradiction. The easiest way to explain how this works is in this example: An insurance company insuring 10 people has claims of $1,000 per month. The insurance company must charge each of the 10 people a premium of $100 per month to cover its costs and break even.

Painter Patrick McGrath MuM-qiz is fascinated by consumerism and the contradictions it spurs. Growing up in Puerto Rico, it's an inevitable, in-your-face topic. How can the poorest U.S territory have some of the highest-grossing chain stores in the world? How is it possible for low-income families in Puerto Rico -- which has the highest concentration of cars per square mile in the world -- to have two and three vehicles per household? Early in his artistic development, he found in Catholic iconography a powerful tool to comment on this.

The easy call is to tell our Olympic athletes to stay home this summer. You can summarize the reasons in two simple words. Beijing. Bad. It's not as if the United States hasn't played that moral high-road card before. The United States was among 65 nations that boycotted the Moscow Summer Games in 1980 because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, only to have the Soviet Union and 14 Eastern-bloc partners deliver payback in 1984 when the Games were staged in Los Angeles. And now the international pressure ratchets up to diss the Olympics in Beijing because of China's awful report card on human-rights violations.

WHAT: "Pink is ambitious the way Madonna used to be: a mess of contradictions and complications with a knack for making those inner conflicts bolster her art," says rollingstone.com. Her 2003 album Try This fell flat, but she's back in form with this year's I'm Not Dead, which "swaggers with a cockiness that most dudes in bands can't match." Matt Nathanson will open. WHEN: Doors at 7 p.m. Wednesday. WHERE: House of Blues, Downtown Disney, Lake Buena Vista. COST: $25. CALL: 407-934-2583.

Hiring models to pose as residents wasn't the only way Deltona officials tried to make the city look good on its new economic-development Web site. They also fudged their facts a bit. The site boasts that Deltona is fifth in the nation in job growth, according to a 2006 study by the Milken Institute. But an official with the nonprofit economic think tank told Pulse that fifth place actually went to the Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach metropolitan region. Deltona also left out the fact that the area dropped to 30th place in rankings released last year.